Two AP journalists wounded in Afghanistan

Two AP visual jour­nal­ists were seri­ously wounded in Afghanistan ear­lier today when the con­voy they were trav­el­ing with was hit by an IED.

Pho­tog­ra­pher Emilio More­natti and AP Tele­vi­sion News video­g­ra­pher Andi Jat­miko were trav­el­ing with the mil­i­tary when their vehi­cle was struck by the bomb Tuesday.

Both were imme­di­ately taken to a mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal in Kan­da­har. Jat­miko suf­fered leg injuries and two bro­ken ribs. More­natti, badly wounded in the leg, under­went an oper­a­tion that resulted in the loss of his foot.

More­natti, 40, a Spaniard, is an award-winning pho­tog­ra­pher based in Islam­abad who has worked for the AP in Afghanistan, Israel and the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries. He was named News­pa­per Pho­tog­ra­pher of the Year in 2009 by Pic­tures of the Year International.

Jat­miko, 44, of Indone­sia, has reported for the AP from through­out Asia for more than 10 years.

I met one of the jour­nal­ists, Emilio, here in Islam­abad where he is based with his wife, Marta. I can’t say I know him very well, but he seemed a fun and intense guy. In short, some­one you’d like to know.

Emilio and Andi know the dan­gers they poten­tially face every time they go out on patrol with the mil­i­tary — IEDs are the dead­liest threat to NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan these days — and they accept them as part of the job. And they do this to tell read­ers and view­ers the story. They deserve respect.

I extend my thoughts to Emilio, Marta, Andi and Andi’s wife, Pingkan, in this dif­fi­cult time for them all.